Hacking to Create Community Change in Israel (Campustlv) and the Bay Area (Parisoma SF) on July 19, 2013

On July 19, “Hasadna” (the Public Knowledge Workshop of Israel) and the Schusterman Philanthropic Network will launch “Friday Night Hack.” This new initiative will take a collaborative, interactive and international approach to combining open-source, open-data, networks of savvy coders and inspiring challenges to leverage the power of technology for positive change in the Jewish community and Israel.

Developers, designers and other creative individuals who have a passion for using technology to address pressing social challenges will hack together simultaneously in Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley on two main channels, one focused on Israeli municipalities and one on strengthening the global Jewish community.

You have the opportunity to use your specialized skills and expertise to create and improve tech-based tools that will benefit Israel and Jewish communities around the globe.

Among our goals at the Friday Night Hack is to create and strengthen the bonds within and between the hacking communitiesof Israel and Silicon Valley, while providing hackers with new ways to devote their time and talent to fostering positive change.

After an inspiring Shabbat dinner, hackathon participants will start working on the projects:

The Israeli Channel

Open Muni – Open Budget

This web application and API promotes the accessibility and transparency of the budgetary data of Israel’s municipalities. The project aims to give Israelis access to basic information about government spending in their municipalities. We need your help coding and designing for our “Open Muni Budgets” application. The project’s tasks are viewable at the GitHub page.

• Designers with a passion for thinking creatively and outside of the box; and

• Content people.

The Community Project Channel

For this project, we are inviting proposals for innovative and unique applications that will address challenges and engage young adults in Jewish communities around the globe. We will share all submitted ideas that meet our criteria here and select the best to build during the hackathon.

We have already selected one project that we will work on.

Open Dorms: College Roommate Finder App

For North American Jews, college marks a time when powerful relationships are formed through experiences on campus and particularly with roommates and dorm cohabitants. Open Dorms is a proposed college roommate finder web platform/app that would be available to Jewish high school seniors and other Jewish students so they can share information regarding (i) where they will be attending university and (ii) other interests and experiences, in order to find possible roommates that might share similar Jewish backgrounds. We need your help coding and designing for our “Open Dorms” application.

Specifically, we are looking for:

• Coders who want to build a much-need app-based environment from scratch;

• Designers who like to work on UI/UX; and

• Marketing people with a flair for challenges.

The Bay Area hackathon will be hosted by our local community partner, the Innovation Committee at the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco at Parisoma.

For more information and/or if you would like to be a part of “Friday Night Hack,” please contact us at: info@hasadna.org.il

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Hasadna (the Public Knowledge Workshop of Israel) is a volunteer-run, Israeli non-profit organization devoted to promoting transparency by liberating data that should be open to everyone. By building open-code applications, Hasadna strives to make information available and accessible via the web for everyone to access. hasadna.org.il/en

The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Philanthropic Network (SPN) is a global enterprise that supports and creates innovative initiatives for the purpose of igniting the passion and unleashing the power in young people to create positive change for themselves, in the Jewish community and across the broader world. SPN includes the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, Schusterman Foundation-Israel, ROI Community and REALITY. www.schusterman.org